Dive Brief:
- Hospitals are facing an "extremely challenging" 2014, including reimbursement cuts, regulatory actions and a "broken" RAC appeals process, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA).
- The AHA's legislative agenda includes protecting Medicare payments from further cuts, reining in the RACs and monitoring the SGR phase-out.
- AHA lead lobbyist Tom Nickels said that hospitals have absorbed $113 billion in funding cuts since 2010.
Dive Insight:
Given the challenges they face, hospitals have every reason to stand and fight, especially on the Hill. In fact, given the breadth of the challenges they face, they'd be crazy not to make some noise and get some publicity for their plight. But the truth is, they're going to face a hugely challenging year even if they meet some of their objectives. As we've known all along, this could be a do or die year for many hospitals.